1 month ago

I started buying the EDH precons as full sets starting with C14 as a way to get in to the format, then began upgrading some of them this year.

As of now, I've done all of the revamps that I intend to do for the C14-C16 decks. I'll probably write more about that process later. There were three decks that I did not attempt to upgrade, though, so I figured I would explain why.

Nahiri, the Lithomancer: I would want to build this as an equipment deck. Unfortunately, the good equipment is extremely expensive, and the deck is not really that awesome even when fully built out. I'd love to build it out one day, but not when the equipment package alone would cost multiple times what I'm willing to spend on one deck.

Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath: Ultimately, this deck feels too much like a worse version of Meren to be worth building out. I'd like to build some flavor of mono-B some day to play with some of the cool toys that don't work so well in multi-colored decks, but given that it would be a nearly complete overhaul of the deck, I will probably wait until after the C17 decks come out to try it.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress: Ezuri is basically just a strictly worse Atraxa at this point. The other option is to go snake tribal, but that's just not realistically a very good deck. You end up running all of the "build your own tribe" cards, and at the end of the day, there are just way better tribes to use at that point. If I were to build something in Simic colors, I'd likely go Bant and build out a bounce/flicker themed deck in the vain of my U/G Bounce casual 60-card list.

There were also a couple interesting decisions in a few of the decks that I did choose to build out:

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas I originally skipped since it felt like a fairly linear voltron-ish deck. It eventually turned out that having a fairly linear voltron-ish deck is really helpful for briging new players in to the format who feel intimidated by the crazy combos, timing manipulation and rules intricacy of other decks. It's also a great deck in multiplayer for keeping some of the degenerate decks honest since it tends to get ignored right up until it just wipes someout out. While this isn't one of the strongest decks, there are a handful of legitimately skill-testing match-ups (like Daxos) that made me glad I built it.

Saskia the Unyielding
was another initial skip since my original take on it was that it basically jund aggro, which was more than I wanted to spend for a fairly linear deck. I came back to it when I was looking to build a token deck. With new toys like
Hanweir Garrison
, Odric, Lunarch Marshal and Samut, Voice of Dissent, there was enough cool stuff going on at a reasonable price that I took the plunge. A lot of people in my play group like tokens, and this has been a popular choice for people to play, so it's been worth it.

I threw pretty much all of Mizzix of the Izmagnus out to build out a U/R chaos deck. This leaves my stable without any dedicated spellslinger style decks, which I want to build out. I don't know if what I want for that is Mizzix, Narset, or maybe something new. This is another deck I'll likely wait until after the C17 decks come out to take a stab at. I feel like every playgroup should have a chaos deck to break out once or twice a year, and in general I think even when it's frustrating, it tends to lead to more memorable games than storming off would.

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis was one that I wanted to build but didn't intend do. I always thought group hug decks were neat, but we have so much 1v1 in our playgroup that I figured I'd rarely actually get a chance to play it. Ultimately, I settled on a game plan that was less politics and more about resource flooding and board wipes with a combo finish and made up a sideboard to remove the combos in multiplayer. This is another deck that can lead to memorable games as the insane levels of ramp and draw mean everyone is constantly setting up crazy broken board states and then getting wiped until someone breaks through.

1 month ago

I started buying the EDH precons as full sets starting with C14 as a way to get in to the format, then began upgrading some of them this year.

As of now, I've done all of the revamps that I intend to do for the C14-C16 decks. I'll probably write more about that process later. There were three decks that I did not attempt to upgrade, though, so I figured I would explain why.

Nahiri, the Lithomancer: I would want to build this as an equipment deck. Unfortunately, the good equipment is extremely expensive, and the deck is not really that awesome even when fully built out. I'd love to build it out one day, but not when the equipment package alone would cost multiple times what I'm willing to spend on one deck.

Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath: Ultimately, this deck feels too much like a worse version of Meren to be worth building out. I'd like to build some flavor of mono-B some day to play with some of the cool toys that don't work so well in multi-colored decks, but given that it would be a nearly complete overhaul of the deck, I will probably wait until after the C17 decks come out to try it.

Ezuri, Claw of Progress: Ezuri is basically just a strictly worse Atraxa at this point. The other option is to go snake tribal, but that's just not realistically a very good deck. You end up running all of the "build your own tribe" cards, and at the end of the day, there are just way better tribes to use at that point. If I were to build something in Simic colors, I'd likely go Bant and build out a bounce/flicker themed deck in the vain of my U/G Bounce casual 60-card list.

There were also a couple interesting decisions in a few of the decks that I did choose to build out:

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas I originally skipped since it felt like a fairly linear voltron-ish deck. It eventually turned out that having a fairly linear voltron-ish deck is really helpful for briging new players in to the format who feel intimidated by the crazy combos, timing manipulation and rules intricacy of other decks. It's also a great deck in multiplayer for keeping some of the degenerate decks honest since it tends to get ignored right up until it just wipes someout out. While this isn't one of the strongest decks, there are a handful of legitimately skill-testing match-ups (like Daxos) that made me glad I built it.

Saskia the Unyielding was another initial skip since my original take on it was that it basically jund aggro, which was more than I wanted to spend for a fairly linear deck. I came back to it when I was looking to build a token deck. With new toys like Hanweir Garrison, Odric, Lunarch Marshal and Samut, Voice of Dissent, there was enough cool stuff going on at a reasonable price that I took the plunge. A lot of people in my play group like tokens, and this has been a popular choice for people to play, so it's been worth it.

I threw pretty much all of Mizzix of the Izmagnus out to build out a U/R chaos deck. This leaves my stable without any dedicated spellslinger style decks, which I want to build out. I don't know if what I want for that is Mizzix, Narset, or maybe something new. This is another deck I'll likely wait until after the C17 decks come out to take a stab at. I feel like every playgroup should have a chaos deck to break out once or twice a year, and in general I think even when it's frustrating, it tends to lead to more memorable games than storming off would.

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis was one that I wanted to build but didn't intend do. I always thought group hug decks were neat, but we have so much 1v1 in our playgroup that I figured I'd rarely actually get a chance to play it. Ultimately, I settled on a game plan that was less politics and more about resource flooding and board wipes with a combo finish and made up a sideboard to remove the combos in multiplayer. This is another deck that can lead to memorable games as the insane levels of ramp and draw mean everyone is constantly setting up crazy broken board states and then getting wiped until someone breaks through.

1 month ago

This looks like a really fun deck! Definitely a different take on my main squeeze Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, and I love it! I play her as well if you couldn't tell Alesha, Who is Unfinished. Mine is definitely different from yours, I play this iron maiden in a very control-type fashion, but I really enjoy discussing the finer points of an Alesha deck. I am curious how well the deck performs with such a low mana count, even with your 0 drops, I don't see you having enough.... Alesha is a mana hungry lady in my experience.

2 months ago

Hi B,

I think you need to work on your mana base, ensure you have sufficient color generation, as you have a lot of lands that produce colorless (albeit have secondary effects), and you have a lot of lands that come into play tapped. This can cause you to be delayed in turns when you NEED to cast a creature or two for a winning swing.

As it stands, I would recommend removing Evolving Wilds, Myriad Landscape, and Terramorphic Expanse and replacing them for basic lands as you don't have sufficient basics to even be able to fully utilize them (I believe you needed more mountains when I thumbed through your deck, no? 20 White Mana Generation in Lands and 14 Red Mana Generation was what I counted, I believe). That being said, I'll recount it once you have your changes made, to ensure you have a stable mana base. You could remove Darksteel Citadel as well. I'm not sure about Haunted Fengraf nor Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, as you already have multiple ways to provide double strike. There was a Red/White land from Aether Revolt, I believe, you can add it in.

Your deck seems to want to deal more damage via tokens and creatures with multiple combat steps than in other ways, so I would consider removing the direct damage spells for more utility. Shattering Spree will take care of a LOT of things that could hinder your deck, Pillage gives you a choice of busting a land as well as an artifact (and also stops them from regenerating). You could also run Incendiary Command for utility and draw.

I'm not sure Ajani Vengeant nor Nahiri, the Lithomancer are good in this deck, it can open up slots for other effects, like Wake of Destruction or Ruination. The former will single-handedly wreck decks in a muliplayer environment that run lands that are not of your colors, whereas the latter will wreck EVERY deck that is in play (including yours), unless you run more basics. You could also benefit from running Secure the Wastes or Martial Coup for token generation for both, plus creature removal on the latter.

In your enchantments, you're already running a True Conviction, which is one more white mana intensive than Rage Reflection, but it provides you with an additional effect, which I consider is better than the Rage Reflection itself. You can open up a space for something else. Anointed Procession benefits greatly when you run Secure the Wastes and Martial Coup as well. I'm not sure that a single effect like Sphere of Safety will be necessary, and the Murder Investigation is cute, but not optimal.

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